12 November 2008

You Only Wish You Were This Awesome - Joseph Ducreux

At some point in our life, we like to think of ourselves as being awesome. Not awesome in that "filling with awe" sort of way, but the "I'm the coolest baddest mother-effing human being" kind of awesome.

Well, we will never be the most awesome person on the planet because Batman has already been invented. But there are several real people we can look up to as an inspiration for awesome.

According to Wikipedia, Joseph Ducreux was French portrait painter, pastelist, miniaturist, and engraver. He painted portraits for Marie Antoinette, King Louis XVI and other famous people but those all pale in comparison to his famous self portraits done in the 1780s.

Ducreux was trying to break free from the stiff limitations of portraiture and engage in real expression, wether it be an alarmed face asking for silence, being in the middle of a yawn, or guffawing at the audience in a very pimp-esque pose. Two centuries ago, he painted himself to be what would become known as humorous image macros, but without the obnoxious text, obviously.